Elected clerk jousts with Ottawa County over office

More than two months after the new courthouse opened, Ottawa County Clerk Dan Krueger is still using discarded tables as a desk.

Krueger said his is the last office to receive furniture, claiming even some unused spaces are completely furnished.

But County Administrator Al Vanderberg disagrees, saying Krueger’s office is in the Fillmore Complex, and the clerk never spoke up against the plan to share a space in the courthouse with three other elected officials.

PETER DAINING

More than two months after the new courthouse opened, Ottawa County Clerk Dan Krueger is still using discarded tables as a desk.

Krueger said his is the last office to receive furniture, claiming even some unused spaces are completely furnished.

7 STANDOFFS
7 standoffs
Since Ottawa County Clerk Dan Krueger took office in 1978, many of his duties, primarily the responsibility for communications with the county Board of Commissioners, have been shifted from his elected post, often to the county administrator who answers to the board.
In his more than three decades as clerk, Krueger has butted heads with the board and administrators frequently.
1987 — Krueger took the Ottawa County board to court over who is in charge of county finances. In the 1970s, the board took power from the clerk and gave it to a county controller. The Michigan Supreme Court said it’s up to the board.
1988-89 — Krueger helped lead an effort proposing an elected county executive, which would take administrative control from the board. Voters defeated it.
1991 — The board votes for Krueger to control some administrative and financial responsibilities. After a turnover in the board, it votes in 1995 to return those responsibilities to the county administrator.
1996 — Some commissioners push to combine clerk and register of deeds’ offices, but don’t pass it. The current board plans to study this issue.
2003 — Krueger applies for county administrator post. The board hires Al Vanderberg, who is still serving today.
2007 — Krueger moves a satellite office from Hudsonville City Hall to the County Human Services complex. Krueger and the administration negotiated an agreement to use the space until it’s needed for another department.
2009 — The administration and Krueger disagree on whether he should have a permanent office at the Ottawa County Courthouse in Grand Haven. He currently has one, but says it’s the only office in the courthouse without new furniture.

But County Administrator Al Vanderberg disagrees, saying Krueger’s office is in the Fillmore Complex, and the clerk never spoke up against the plan to share a space in the courthouse with three other elected officials.

“We’re not going to have a person have two personal offices in the county,” Vanderberg said.

Krueger said it’s necessary for him to have an office in Grand Haven because 15 of his employees work there.

“Why in the heck would I be stupid enough to suggest I wouldn’t need an office here?” Krueger said.

Board Chairman Don Disselkoen said he’s not sure who to believe.

“It’s a he-said he-said kind of a thing,” Disselkoen said. “My understanding is that there were agreements at some point, but I can’t prove that.”

Krueger, who was elected in 1978, has a long history of disagreements with county administrators and the board of commissioners, dating back to a 1980s lawsuit that made it all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court.

The issue between the clerk and the county? It all boils down to Krueger’s struggle against taking duties away from clerks and giving them to administrators, according to former County Attorney Doug Van Essen.

Clerks around the state have fought the same struggle, he said.

“During the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, they (county administrators) popped up almost everywhere,” Van Essen said. “Some of the conflict is a product of that evolution having occurred under Dan’s watch.”

Van Essen, who works in other counties as well, said Krueger is fighting a losing battle. County government has become too complex for an elected official to handle, he said.

“You need to have a professional administrator, who can be selected and who can be removed,” he said.

Krueger said moving duties from an elected official who is accountable to the people and giving them to a staff member who is accountable to the board of commissioners is a mistake.

While an administrator just has to please the majority of the board, an elected official has thousands of voters to consider.

Even so, Krueger recognizes the movement away from elected officials. He expects the county will combine the clerk and register of deeds office as soon as he leaves, a move that was proposed already in 1996.

“I would be willing to bet you as soon as I leave office and Gary Scholten leaves office they’ll try to get those offices combined,” he said.

And the new clerk may have no idea how much the position has changed, Van Essen said.